That Time We Went on a Road Trip Around Scotland

In June of 2011, I was busily looking for a road trip to do around Canada or USA. We went into a travel agent to get some ideas and he said if it was a road trip we were after to check out "Best of Bonnie" tour. A Scotland road trip leaving in a week for around $950 CAD+tax each. (This included our flights, accommodation, car rental, and a pass into the National trust of Scotland properties.) Uh, SIGN ME UP!

We flew into Glasgow from Vancouver and were extremely jet legged. This didn't stop us from exploring. What stopped us was getting into the car on the LEFT side of the road and mom refusing to drive and deciding we would be living at the airport for the next week..........
After some convincing, we managed to get her to start driving the car.

We only had a week to see as much as we could. We made our way down to Melrose, which was a 2 hour drive. We wanted to check out Melrose Abbey as the photos online looked amazing. The photo's we saw did not disappoint.

Melrose Abbey.

Our trip took us to Perth for a night and then onto Fort Williams. Our bed and breakfasts were amazing and they catered to our vegan needs wonderfully. Most of the places made us a breakfast with baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, toast, hashbrowns, porridge plus tea and coffee with soya milk. One place bought us tofu but had no idea what to do with it.

Scotland is probably one of the best countries to road trip around. The scenery is stunning anywhere you go. It's not crowded the more north you go. In some places, we felt like we were the only people around.

Driving to the Isle of Skye.

We didn't have enough time to make it to the Isle of Skye. We made it to the bridge but only had time to circle the round about before heading towards Inverness. We couldn't miss seeing the Loch Ness monster at Urquhart Castle.

Urquhart Castle and Lochness

We tried to see another castle, but due to bad weather we couldn't take a boat across to see it.

"Where's the Castle?" "It's right there!"

We found that every time it started raining, we would find another castle. We were basically castle hunters. With our National Trust card it helped because we got to see most of them for free. We discovered some James Bond and Highlander movie locations.

We loved seeing the rural areas and the highlands but we enjoyed the big city Edinburgh as well. Edinburgh castle is one of the biggest castles we've been too. You can easily spend 3 hours there. While we were in Edinburgh there was a cafe run by volunteers called The Forest that served huge Mediterranean meals. Sadly they are closed now.

We also made our way to Stirling to the check out the castle there. It was the last castle we checked out in Scotland. Each time we went to a castle on our trip we got a stamp in our National Trust for Scotland passport. The lady that stamped our passport said that we've seen more of Scotland than she has.

We ended off our trip in Glasgow. We checked out a vegan pub called the 78. It blew our mind that there was a vegan pub. Up until this point the only vegan restaurants we had seen were raw food places back in Canada so when we went into the 78 and ordered bean burgers with beer battered onion rings we were super stoked.

Vegan pub in Glasgow

We had an amazing time in Scotland and we got to see a lot of the country especially considering that we were only there for a week. Since the trip was so short it kept us wanting more and we've wanted to go back to Scotland ever since. We've gone back to Edinburgh and Glasgow since then, but what we've really wanted to do is another road trip. Finally our wish has come true and we are heading on another epic road trip around Scotland. Stay Tuned!

Comments

Driving on the left really feels weird. We did it while driving in Namibia and South Africa and it sure took some time to get used to it. Funny thing is how confusing it is to get back home after a longer time driving on the "wrong" side of the road. :)

What a crazy mix of landscapes and ancient architecture! It looks really incredible! I have a friend from Scotland that keeps telling me I need to come visit him but I keep putting it off. That seems stupid now seeing this!

This is such a crazy idea to squeeze all of Scotland into one week road trip leaving in a week haha. I would love to drive around and see amazing places like you did. The Isle of Skye looks beautiful, its a shame you couldn't see more of it but at least you got a glimpse!

Can't stop dreaming whenever I come across Scotland and Iceland. love the way you tell about this place. It’s amazing information the places with wonderful pics. I’ve never gone there before. Noted it!

Edinburgh's a beautiful place isn't it? My husband is keen for us to take a similar road trip when our kids are a bit bigger, camping along the way! The scenery does look wonderful but you can't rely on the weather, even in summer.

Wonderful views... and they have a vegan pub! I have never heard of a vegan pub before. But this is what I like about this blog. It tells us that the world is mroe vegan-friendly than most people think.

Such a great experience :) one week driving up and down in Scotland is surely amazing with its breathtaking landscapes, the nature and especially the Castles (I'm a Castle lover :D) . Great pictures, in particular I've appreciated the "Melrose Abbey", really beautiful.

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